Frozen
by AriMarvelUniverse
Summary: Leo's sick...and Yono's stuck with being his baby sitter. Fluff and talking ensues, with icy kisses...and maybe something else if ya want... Maus is not mine.


Kiyono stood leaning against the door, wincing in sympathy with each new addition of ice water added to the tub.

Donatello's olive toned muscles strained with the effort of hefting the metal bucket, filled to the brim with chunks of ice and frigid water, to the edge of the tub Mikey had pillaged from the junkyard, sloshing it in and effectively covering the flushed, sick turtle lying prone on the bottom. Mask-less, gearless, and so feverish he should have been evaporating the water encasing him, Leonardo shuddered and forced himself not to squirm like a fussy child as the water cascaded over him. The deep brown in his eyes was nearly swallowed by the reddened veins lacing his sclera, and the usual forest green of his skin was now a pasty, splotched grey-green color. He opened his aching eyes and glared at his third youngest brother as he sat the now empty bucket on the floor with a clang of finality and stepped back. "Well, that's the last of it." he observed calmly, eying the Leader with a gleam of amusement behind his violet mask. "You need to stay in here until the fever goes down. It shouldn't take too long, as long as you don't try to go on anymore city runs- in the pouring rain- while we're gone. You can still get sick in the summer, you know." Leonardo's growl and glare didn't seem to faze him as much as it should have. "Just calm down and try to lower that temperature. But don't go to sleep...you don't need hypothermia on top of it." Donatello remarked wryly, crossing his arms and fighting a smirk.

Behind him, Kiyono watched in silent concern, slowly winding a tendril of black hair around her finger, releasing it, and starting the process over again. It was cold as possible in the bathroom, but her bare, short clad legs held no goosebumps, and neither did her pale arms. The cold was coming from her- Donnie had told her to amp up her chill output for Leo's benefit, to help with his fever, and of course she had happily complied.

Well, maybe not happily.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, lips pursed and dark eyes swimming with helplessness and discomfort. Courtesy of the ecstatic Shadows, she could feel just how sick Leo was- every time he coughed, sneezed, or shuddered, she felt it as if it were coming from her own body. The fog of his illness was visible in the air only to her- a thick, bitter red and yellow haze that turned her stomach. He was suffering, so she was suffering, in more than one way. Unlike the others, she was perfectly fine with his avidness for training- most of the time, but not all. Because of situations just like this.

"Don, come on!" The shout from the hallway caused Donatello to jump and turn halfway. "Coming! Coming." He twisted and met Kiyono's eyes, gesturing with his head for her to follow him into the hall. Casting one last glance at Leo, she followed. What she saw only helped to sour her mood- the other two brothers and the resident hedgegirl of the group were all fully disguised with human patches and ready to leave. Donatello had altered the disguises- instead of a thick orange hoodie and blue jeans, Mikey now sported an orange soccer shirt and corduroys, blonde human hair messy and unkempt as usual over shimmering blue eyes. Raph's face, even humanized, still wore the pretense of eternal grouchiness, but even he was excited in a red WWE shirt and khakis. And Maus...

Bouncing up and down like a little kid, beaming so widely her cheeks were red and decked out in the oddest and most unique clothes in her wardrobe.

Kiyono blinked and crossed her ankles, feeling extremely left out and a little dingy in a stained, salvaged college shirt and holey black shorts. She said little, as was her habit, instead fixing Donatello with a slim, raised eyebrow. The genius cleared his throat and pulled a human patch from his belt, attaching it to his arm. "I, that is, We, have some, er...business to attend to...uptop." The eyebrow raised higher, and her neck dipped slightly to the side. "Mm-hm. Does that 'business' have anything to do with the Creature-Feature Marathon at Central Park, maybe?" she asked rhetorically, hunching her shoulders. "Please don't lie, like Raph is about to." She could sense the deceit literally spewing from the second oldest. Donnie flushed and removed his glasses, cleaning them methodically. Empaths. Damn. "I saw the tickets. Mikey left them on the kitchen table this morning." she continued. All three shot Mikey a furious look, which he quailed from. Donatello sighed and replaced his glasses, getting a clear view of her betrayed face.

"It goes on all night, Don. All. Night." she pouted, puffing out her pale mouth and crossing her arms tightly. "He's sick, and you all are taking a field trip because he can't stop you." Silence, laced with guilt as thick as cold blood. Donnie tried to save face. "Kiyono...you can't get sick. You're the logical choice to stay with him, and-" Kiyono shook her head jerkily and turned her back on them, rolling her bony shoulders in a sarcastic shrug. "Fine. Good-bye. Have fun. I won't tell him- I never do. So don't worry." she bit out quietly, padding back into the bathroom. Yes, she didn't get sick, but that didn't mean they had to take advantage and leave their ailing brother to go have fun. Out of all of them, she was the one that had the most issues whenever she went uptop- struggling with not devouring the whole city, for instance, or being spotted by her family, or countless other problems. So they were leaving her behind as a convenient stand-in. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have been so annoyed- she had better control over her emotions than that, but for some reason this one rubbed her the wrong way. Maybe because it was Leo, or maybe because his bad mood was rubbing off on her.

She nudged the door closed with her foot and placed her back against the wall, sliding down to the floor with a soft thump, drawing her knees up to her chest and listening as the sounds of muffled conversation faded into silence after the beeping of the alarm system and the shutting of the door. She sighed and rolled her head to the side, feeling her ponytail tickle the underside of her leg. A hacking cough and splashing water brought her head snapping upwards, and her body to her feet. She made her way over to the tub and perched her skinny backside on the edge. "Hey. Are you alright?" She pressed the back of her hand to his neck, at a loss at what to do.

Leonardo's eyes were unfocused and glassy, and he was shivering again. "Y-Yeah. F-fi-fine. Ju-j-just a l-little h-hot. I d-don't e-even need th-is." Kiyono said nothing, but discreetly rolled one eye. He could barely get one word out without chewing his tounge off. "Wh-ere a-are th-the oth-ers?" he sniffed. Kiyono stiffened and glanced away for a millisecond. She hated lying to him- she didn't see how the others did it so easily and so often. "Around." He narrowed his eyes and pinned her to the wall with his gaze as best he could. "Y-Yono. I m-meant wh-ere dd-did they g-g-o."

She flinched and rubbed at her neck. Even though he was sick, he wasn't stupid. He knew his own family. "Movie." she whispered. He sighed and leaned his head back. "Fig-figures. H-how long?"

"All night. I'm sorry..."

"D-Don't apolog-gize. I al-already knew."

She reached over and laced her fingers with his, squeezing them comfortingly and receiving a slightly weakened response. "I'm sure they'll be alright." she said halfheartedly. "You need to get better now. Chew them out when they get home." she said, brightening a little in vicious, jealous joy at the prospect. "I m-most d-definelty w-will." he muttered darkly, before yawning and letting his eyes flutter closed. Kiyono grabbed his shoulder and shook him in alarm, making the water slosh. "No. No sleeping. Donatello said you could get even sicker." Leonardo groaned and slipped down lower into the water. "S-Shell. Ca-can't ev-even sl-eep when I'm s-sick." She pulled a face at him and drummed her fingers gently on the top of his head. "No. But it's better than never sleeping at all." He grimaced and shivered again, shooting her a contrite glance. "T-true."

Silence reigned for awhile, interupted by the slow splashes of Kiyono's pale hand swishing through the water.

"Is the water getting warm?" "N-no." "Do you want me to get the E-Reader?" "N-no." "Are you hungry?" "No..."

She wiped at her face in self-frustration. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to help you." she mumbled. From age three to fifteen, she'd never gotten sick, because she couldn't. Before then, she couldn't remember if/how anyone had taken care of her. The medic had skipped out, and she didn't know what to do. Her face darkened along with her thoughts. All for a movie...when Donatello came back-

Leo watched her expression cloud over, then grunted and shifted upwards in the water, stretching out one arm towards her. "C-come here." She wrinkled her nose in confusion and tilted her head to the side. "Hm?" "C-come here."

Slowly, bewildered, she swung herself around so that her legs were submerged, and slid herself down into the frigid water beside him, still fully clothed. She knew the water was cold, but her nerves never registered the discomfort. He was still hot- she could feel his heated skin through her thin, damp clothes, like a sun in the ocean. She rested her head on his warm shoulder, watching her legs whiten and her veins show beneath the water. "What was the point of this?" she asked quietly, raising her foot and letting it splash back down, creating ripples. He wrapped an arm around her, his other hand finding her ponytail and pulling it apart. The wet strands clung to her face and stuck in her eyelashes, fanning out like black pond fronds. "L-lots of r-reasons. I c-can't go t-to sleep w-with y-y-you th-this close. It-its im-possi-ble." He chuckled lowly. "A-and y-you looked l-like y-you n-eeded it." She sighed and shook her head. "I'm not the sick one."

"N-not this." he gestured to the ice, then squeezed her more tightly. "T-this. A-and I'm not s-sick. Not r-really." She allowed her muscles to relax fully, pressing her chilly lips to the underside of his jaw and drifting closer. "Okay. And we both did." she agreed, wiggling her toes under the surface. "It's almost funny...you talk to me about hurting myself all the time, but here you are, buried in ice with a fever from running too much." He sneezed. "I-it's tr-training. It's d-different." "No it's not." "It i-is."

She stayed quiet, not wanting to argue with him- least of all now. Their legs floated freely, bumping against the other person's in the gentle waves created from breathing and heartbeats.

"D-did you p-paint y-your n-nails?" he asked, eyeing the chipped blue polish strangely. She shook her head, dragging her hair through the water. "No. Maus did. She said it would look cute, and that you might like it because it was blue." She wrinkled her nose in embarrasment. "I might take it off later." "K-keep it. I-I d-do l-like it."

Kiyono fished for a topic, trying to keep him awake and occupied. "You were right." Leo peered down at the top of her head, leaning forward slightly. "A-aren't I al-always?"." She stone-faced him, drawing a low laugh. "W-what d-d-did y-you m-mean?" She shrugged delicately and tipped her head back, letting the water lap at her ears and scalp. "Living here. With everyone else. You were right...it's getting a lot easier, being around other people. Mikey doesn't jump a mile whenever I speak anymore." He snorted and shook his head. "I-It g-goes b-both ways. Y-you act-actually T-TALK t-to e-everyone now. Y-you're n-not is-isolating y-yours-self anymore. Or s-shoving me aw-away. That p-probably c-counts for s-some of it." She flushed and squirmed, hiding her burning cheeks in the icy liquid. "I never shoved you..."

"Y-you did. Twice. A-and you th-threatned me. And insulted m-me. Ca-called me a sl-slimy pond d-dweller, I think." he countered wryly. "Y-you were int-intent on b-being unha-ppy." She tried to glare at him, and found she coudn't. "And you wouldn't let me. I thought you had some kind of death-wish- and I still do." She blew on a piece of ice, sending it bobbing away like a toy boat. "M-maybe I do." he responded evenly. "And maybe you just like the high, the idea of kissing something that could kill you. I never took you for an adrenaline junkie, but..." She closed her eyes and sank beneath the arctic surface, letting the water close over her face for a few seconds. She blinked up at him, like a naid on a lake bottom, before rising and exhaling slowly, wiping her sopping hair back from her forehead. "The water is getting warmer, and you're not shivering so much anymore." she reported, placing her hands on the sides of his neck. "You're a lot cooler, too. Donatello said that you should get out when that happens."

She pulled away and grabbed the edge of the tub, but Leo's arms didn't ease. "D-Don's n-not here." he grinned, gently tugging her back down. "W-we've estab-blished th-that. A-and if i-it's getting w-warm...you c-can fix it." A slow smile spread over her face at his uncharacteristic behavior, and she settled back against his body, hooking her fingers on his slippery plastron. The sides of the tub were misted with a thin layer of frost that crawled over the floor and up the walls, morphing into thick webs of dusky ice that blossomed like flowers, coating the doorknob and turning the bathroom into a miniature ice rink. The water changd to the consistancy of a fresh slushy and steamed with cold like liquid nitrogen. "P-perfect." he sighed, slumping back once more. Kiyono laughed and followed suit, feeling his heartbeat thump against her back. "Bad things will happen to Donatello when he gets home." she announced. Leo chuckled and wound her tangles through his hands. "W-what are y-you g-going to d-do?" She lidded her eyes. "I don't know. I might put the coffee maker into a deep-freeze...or turn every bottle of allergy meds he owns into an ice cube." she snickered wickedly. "I-I'm g-going to pr-pretend I didn't hear t-that." he told her in mock stern-ness.

"Well, well, Mr. Samurai. You get a little bit of a fever, and suddenly you're a rebel." Kiyono giggled, scooping up a handful of the mixture and dribbling it through her fingers. Leonardo rolled his chocolate-toned eyes, which were much less red, and ran his finger down her spine, drawing a shiver that had nothing to do with the increased cold. "Th-that's Mr. Ninja to you. A-and if D-Donatello can h-have his fun wh-while I'm s-sick..." She turned and pressed herself closer, facing him and feeling his warm breath hit her lips. "I th-thought you w-weren't sick." she gasped, suddenly stammering as her brain imploded deliciously. He cradled her waist and bent down close to her ear, illiciting more pleased shudders. "I a-am if you're t-taking c-care of me." Her neck and face heated up brilliantly, and her words stuck in her throat. His fingers found their way under her chin at the exact moment her arms wound around his neck, and pulled her into a perfectly molded kiss that should have boiled the surrounding frost and left the bathroom sizzling.


End file.
